Ascension to Power
by Shin'en no Tenshi
Summary: They say power tends to corrupt. After being betrayed one last time, Naruto finally learns the true meaning of power. Watch as he struggles to become what he was always destined to be, a God! Naruto/Bleach Crossover.


**Title:** Ascension to Power  
**By:** Lord of the Darkness and Light  
**Prologue:** Power  
**Summary:** They say power tends to corrupt. After being betrayed one last time, Naruto finally learns the true meaning of power. Watch as he struggles to become what he was always destined to be, a God!

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Special Thanks to Kibou32 for Beta-ing this chapter. Without her this chapter would have been a complete grammatical disaster!**

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It was all about power.

It had taken him a few beatings, some betrayals and many deaths to realize that everything had to do with power. After all, being betrayed by his best friend due to a false promise of power made by a madman can break anybody. It got worse when that same 'friend' stabbed him in his heart without any sign of hesitation.

And it was all because of power.

Dying wasn't as painful as he had thought and it should have been. His whole body got numb, his feet lost their capacity to hold him upright, and everything seemed to be moving in slow-motion. Incredibly enough, it seemed as if the loss of his sense of touch led to the augmentation of all the other senses. He could see how his blood slowly began to seep from the terrible wound located across his chest, how it flew up into the air and stained his killer's clothes. He could smell the scent of pine trees located about a mile away from where they were. He could even hear the sound of water flowing from an underground spring nearby. The amplified, coppery taste of blood in his mouth made him ill, but he knew that it would pass in a few seconds and then he'd never have to deal with it again.

Suddenly, as he was lying on the hard cold ground, he died. Then he found himself sitting next to his dead but still bleeding body. He noticed then that he was wearing a pristine-white kimono instead of his old clothes. He examined the strange broken chain protruding from his chest, surprised of its existence and its beautiful craftsmanship. (Black, red and silver colored links alternated in an undecipherable pattern, giving it an ominous look.)

It was then that he realized that the broken pieces of metal, from the last link of the chain; had transformed themselves into small mouths with teeth that began to devour what was left of the chain that was attached to his body at a mesmerizing pace. Something inside of him screamed in panic, begging him to try and stop the mouths, but another; the more dominant part of him demanded him to accelerate the process. He decided to dismiss it altogether and turned to stare at his dead body, the chain forgotten for the moment. The husk shell of what was once his body had its blonde hair matted in blood and dirt, as were his skin and clothes. The black and orange outfit he had grown to be so attached to, was now all rags and tatters. The body had fallen into an awkward position. It looked like his legs had broken under the strain of holding his body upright; his left arm lying nearby, burnt and maimed beyond recognition. He turned away momentarily and looked at the left arm of his seemingly new body, expecting it to be missing as it were on his corpse. As it were, for he had all his limbs accounted for and fully functional. He went on to look at the corpse on the ground, where the once bright blue eyes of his physical body were wide open in shock, the pupils lifelessly staring ahead.

It had taken a simple disguise, a Katon Jutsu, a poisoned chakra-blade and Namikaze Naruto, the legacy of the Yondaime Hokage, dropped dead on the battlefield.

The betrayer's power and skills highly surpassed his, and that made him unbelievably angry. Lost in his cold fury, Naruto never noticed until it was too late, how the mouths devouring his chain began gaining speed, nor Kyuubi's pleas for him to stop the process. The mouths finally reached the first link of Naruto's chain, and he felt his world explode in pain.

A strange energy began enveloping him as a strange, white material flowed to the ground from the hole that had formed where his heart used to be. Time lost its meaning as the pain intensified even as Kyuubi's curses and roars intensified in response to the feeling of transforming – into what he didn't know – but knowing it was suffering as he were, helped Naruto to ground himself and not let the pain overcome him.

Soon though, Kyuubi's roars diminished and his cursing faded, did that mean that he was finally dead?

After what seemed like an eternity, the pain began to recede. But the strange white material began enveloping him inside a cocoon, almost as if it were sentient. Once the cocoon had finished constructing itself, there was a flash and the cocoon changed into a luster-black color.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes; the complete darkness inside the cocoon giving him a comforting feeling. He tried to move his arms but found the task impossible, so he waited. After a few moments he tried again, using much more strength than on his last attempt. This time there was a cracking sound as the bindings that had chained his arms to the cocoon shattered. He tried doing the same thing with his head. Once again, there was the same sound of something cracking and his head was freed as well. He craned his neck and looked behind, he saw that the strange white stuff was covering his arms and head, and was still encasing his torso and legs. It took him only a few seconds to come to a shocking realization. His sight in total darkness was practically flawless. With a great wave of chakra, both his bindings and the cocoon were instantly shattered and swiftly fell apart.

His eyes closed instantly as the sheer amount of light outside the cocoon almost blinded him. After a few moments, he tentatively began opening his eyes as they got used to the light. Once they were fully opened, he observed in shock his surroundings. The clearing where he had died was no more, on its place was a huge crater that expanded far beyond his sight, his body was gone, either it disappeared or was obliterated by whatever that had caused this.

He raised his arm to shield his eyes from the glaring light, but dropped it in shock as he noticed the odd black and red arm guard surrounding it. His eyes widened even more and his jaw dropped as he found his skin had gained a pristine-white color. He turned and looked for the biggest shard of cocoon he could find; thinking that maybe its reflective properties would give him some answers. When he found it, he almost fell down in shock as he saw his reflection. His whole skin had acquired a pristine-whitish, silvery color. His arms were surrounded in pure black arm guards with thin, red patterns. His back was surrounded in a tight-fitting, black metal armor, twin metal stripes criss-crossed his chest, safely securing the armor in place. His chest was fully exposed save for where the thin stripes criss-crossed; his muscles glistened proudly as the contrast between black and white gave him an ominous look. Tight fitting black pants covered his lower section, a luster-black obi with red stripes that them securely on place. Shin guards the same style as his arm guards were securely strapped to his legs. He had on a pair of white straw sandals tied few inches above the ankles; a pair of black Tabi complemented the outfit.

His hair had changed as well; his normal yellow-blonde hair was now several shades lighter. His eyes had also changed; an ethereal-blue shade replaced cerulean-blue eyes. But what shocked Naruto the most was the broken, black and red fox-shaped mask that covered the right top of his face. He noticed it held an eerie resemblance of Kyuubi's head. He grasped the mask and gave it a small yank and found it wouldn't budge.

'What _am_ I?' he wondered as he reexamined himself. Then he felt it, three chakra signals were rapidly approaching, the amount of energy he expelled seems to alert some Shinobi nearby. Within seconds, three Shinobi with Iwa hitai'ate were standing before him – the same three Shinobi that had captured and tortured him so many years ago –

He smirked at their fearful looks; fate seemed to be favoring him today.

One of them seemed to gather his guts and said…

"Who are you and what happened here?!" he said in some sort of squeaky voice, and he surmised that he must have looked pretty intimidating to make the stern Shinobi – he remembered him to be – to act so tipsy. When Naruto began walking towards them; the Shinobi jumped back and fell into a battle ready position, his face trying but failing miserably to remain stern. Was this how power felt like?

"S-Stop! Don't come any c-closer to us!" one of them screamed and tried to run away. He would have succeeded if only Naruto hadn't flash-stepped behind him and lopped his head off with a strange looking sword that had taken the place of his lower-left arm. He took a moment to stare at the magnificent white blade; amazed to see the crimson blood from the fallen Shinobi that ran quickly through its edge.

Was this how power felt like? Was this how a God felt when delivering judgment to those who had sinned against him?

He looked up and watched how the two remaining Shinobi paled at the sight of their companion being disposed so swiftly. Naruto chuckled quietly as he marched towards the remaining Shinobi, his sword glinting menacingly against the sunlight.

"W-What the hell are you?!" one of the remaining Shinobi yelled, drawing a small Katana from his sheath and running towards Naruto. Just as the Shinobi was upon him, he swung his sword down, intending to take Naruto's head just as he had taken his companion's. Naruto raised his sword to meet the attack. To the astonishment of everybody there – Naruto included – the ninja's sword was cut cleanly in half. But due to the ninja's momentum, he was unable to stop impacting with Naruto's sword. The result; he was cut cleanly in half.

Power, he discovered for the first time…felt really nice.

As he marched towards the remaining Shinobi, Naruto couldn't help but ponder on why Sasuke had decided to betray his village.

Was it due to the heady rush that Naruto had felt when fighting those men?

Naruto shook his head and continued walking; there was no way Sasuke could have felt like this, he wasn't worthy enough. But Naruto was. Maybe fate was trying to repay him in death for all the misery he had been forced to endure during his early childhood. If it were true, he was grateful.

The last one standing tried to run as well, but even before he could take two steps, Naruto's sword slid into his heart, killing him instantly. Naruto watched mesmerized as blood flowed down his sword, the red liquid covering it all and still continuing to flow, forming a big red puddle at his feet. The sheer amount of blood the heart began pumping out of his body was mesmerizing. The heart, he decided, was…interesting.

He looked down onto his chest, the hole where his heart should have been looked inhuman and fearsome. Perhaps this was why they were so scared. They knew they weren't in the presence of a mere human, but in the presence of a demon or even an angel. He pondered over this and smirked once again, he looked at the mesmerizing display of colors as the sun came to its critical point. He had reached a conclusion. This power was his and his alone, and this power would remain his forever!

"I'm neither a demon, nor an angel…" he whispered, watching how the sun seemed to bow before him. He threw his head back and shouted at the top of his lungs without a care of the world:

"I'M A GOD!"

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**Glossary:**

**Shinobi** – Ninja.

**Katon** – Fire Technique.

**Yondaime Hokage** – Fourth Fire Shadow.

**Tabi** - Tabi are traditional Japanese socks. They are ankle high and have a separation between the big toe and other toes.

**Hitai'ate** – Forehead Protector.


End file.
